Improved clothe-spin



lUNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY w. sAEGEANT, JE., 0E EosToN, MAssAcHsETTs.

lM PROVED CLOTH E-SPIN Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 47,223. dated April 1.1, 1865.

Figurelis a side view, and Fig. 2 is an elge view.

Like parts are indicated by the same letters in both figures, which are intended to be fullsized.

I have already patented a clothes-pin (December 15,1864) with two rigid outside prongs and a flexible tongue between them, in which the main body ot' the pin is a cylinder about one inch and a quarter in diameter, andchambered out to receive a round, iiexible tongue between the two rigid outside prongs formed by cutting away the two opposite sides of the hollow cylinder.

My present invention consists, iirst, in constructing a clothes pin with three iiexible prongs; and, second, in constructing a threeprongedl clothes-pin out ot a board ora flat piece of stock of the thickness of the ,finished pin instead of a cylinder, so that said prongs may be wide and thin, whereby I am enabled to produce a clothes-pin as strong and durable as the one alluded to above, (already patented,) and with less than half the stock and very considerably less expense in labor.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will now proceed to describe the construction and operation of the same.

I saw a board of about the thickness of the tinished pin (represented in Fig. 2) into strips of the width of the finished pin, (represented in Fig. 1,) cut the same into blocks of the requisite length, and then with a suitable pair of saws or cutters make the two slots f f at the same operation. This leaves the three iiexible prongs B D B as represented in Fig.

.1, being flat strips of the'width of, the thickness ot the board of which they are made. Thus constructed, the requisite stiffness and flexibility are obtained with the least possible amount of wood. In the inner sides of the outer prongs, B B, are indentations or semicircular slots c e, to afford more space for the clothes-line and prevent the pin from slipping off from the latter. l The central prong, D, can be used with either of the outer prongs, B B, at pleasure, for elasping the clothes on the line; and in case this rprong D gets bent and set inone direction by the line it can be so applied the next time it is used as to straighten it, and nip all the tighter on aecountof its previous bending. Athree-pron ged clothes-pin thus constructed will last longer than two two-pronged pins ot' the usual construction, while the amount of stock required to make one of my threepronged pins is only a third more than would be required to make a two-pron ged pin, and the labor of manufacturing is no more in the one case than in the other. I am thus enabled, I think, to produce a better article at a cheaper rate than any known or used before tor a similar purpose. y

By thus rendering the three prongs flexible I also attain another desirable object, which is this: In forcing the pin on over thin and delicate fabrics `on a clothesline or removing i the same, the inner prong and one of the outer prongs may be readily clasped between the thumb andtnger of the operator and drawn together, making more space between the other outer prong and theinner one, thus preventing the fabric from being torn oriinjured,

as it often is with the common kind of clothesy pins.

Having ,thus descr1bed the eonstructmn and operation of my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 

